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WHISKEY PAINTERS OF AMERICA (WPA)

In 1951, a group of close knit watercolor artists, inspired by Akron, Ohio industrial designer, Joseph Ferriot, met at the Tangier Restaurant in Akron to formalize their group's name and validate the genre of watercolor painting by using alcohol instead of water as the blending agent

Ferriot experimented with the style while traveling the country on sales missions for the emerging boom in plastic mold design.

Using a rectangular, early model aspirin tin containing strips of paper, miniature brushes and dallops of paste, Ferriot captivated patrons at watering holes by producing exquisite art by dipping tiny brushes into his favorite spirits.

As fascination with the miniature masterpieces grew and a cult-like following blossomed, other artists, mostly engineers and prodigies from the Akron Society of Artists joined him on his nightly rounds of Akron's nightclubs. A founding member, Tony Cross of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio told an editor at Akron Life and Leisure magazine in 2003 that the habit of tipping waitresses with the tiny keepsakes were a regular practice.

Cross is the last surviving original members of the Whiskey Painters who met with Ferriot at their first meeting. In the 2003 article, he talked about the rules they established and are still in effect to date:

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